On Saturday, 10th February the community and visitors came together to celebrate the Lunar New Year 2024 when two events were held in Brunswick.
The Brunswick Lunar New Year Fair & Celebration was organised by Lightime CIC working in partnership with S4B, Brunswick Tenants & Residents Association and Manchester City Council and took place at Brunswick Parish Church.
There were three craft sessions to choose from during the afternoon three sessions and timeslots to choose from; Faichun, an age old tradition of writing lucky words in gold paint on red paper, red pocket making, another ancient tradition to share good luck and wealth, and Dragon puppet making.
Other activities included, arts and craft stalls, traditional food, drinks and Karaoke. There were also games stalls plus Dragon hat making and not forgetting the star of the show, the Balloon Dragon! View a selection of the photographs from the event here.
The Wai Yin Society Chinese New Year Celebration held a community lunch at Sheung Lok Well-being Centre to which S4B Social Investment Specialist, Sharon Thomas was invited along.
Everyone enjoyed a ‘Poin Choi’ lunch, which means basin food, and consists of a large basin filled with 14 ingredients such as pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, abalone, shark fin, fish maw, prawn, crab, dried mushrooms, fish balls, squid, dried ell, shrimp, pigskin, bean-curd, daikon, bamboo shoots, which are assembled into a casserole.
After lunch the afternoon included a Lion Dance performance and a lucky draw.
When is Lunar New Year?
The date of Lunar New Year differs every year. In 2024 it occurs on 10 February and is the year of the Dragon. In many cultures, each year is also associated with an animal from the zodiac. Often the animals are the same across different Asian countries, including China, South Korea, North Korea, Singapore and Cambodia.
This system for naming years has been in use for about the last 2000 years, but traditionally dates back to 2637 BCE when the calendar was supposed to have been invented.